Faces of Union Hidalgo

Ana María "Anne" Hidalgo Aleu (French: [an idalɡo] ; Spanish: [iˈðalɣo]; born 19 June 1959) is a Spanish-born French politician who served as the Mayor of Paris from 2014 to 2026 and is the first woman to hold the office. She is a member of the Socialist Party (PS). Hidalgo was First Deputy Mayor of Paris under Mayor Bertrand Delanoë (2001–2014), having held the title of Councillor of Paris from 2001. She was elected mayor in 2014 after Delanoë declined to seek a third term. During her first mayoral term, Hidalgo launched the city-wide Réinventer Paris ("Reinvent Paris") programme, which aimed at refurbish and provide new uses for obsolescent sites and to open a participatory budgeting platform for projects throughout Paris. 2015 was marked by instances of Islamic terrorism: the January Charlie Hebdo shooting and November coordinated attacks, including the Bataclan theatre massacre, the aftermath of which Hidalgo witnessed firsthand. Her popularity declined after several instances of alleged mismanagement, to the point that polls showed a majority of voters did not want her to win a second term in 2020. First Deputy Mayor Bruno Julliard resigned in 2018, criticising Hidalgo's style of governance. In 2019 she oversaw the disaster recovery efforts for the Notre-Dame de Paris fire. While the COVID-19 pandemic led to a record low voter turnout, she was reelected with a plurality of the vote. During her second term, Hidalgo oversaw Paris's response to the pandemic, implementing measures such as nightly curfews, closure of non-essential shops and the introduction of 50 kilometres (31 mi) of pop-up cycle lanes known as "coronapistes" to ease pressure on public transport. By early 2021, some of Hidalgo's policies had gained international attention, such as her proposal to remove over half of Paris's car parking spaces and turn the Champs-Élysées into a "fantastic garden". In 2024, Paris hosted the Summer Olympics; the opening ceremony was held outside of a stadium for the first time in modern history, with the athletes paraded by boat along the Seine. On 12 September 2021, Hidalgo announced her candidacy in the Socialist primary for the 2022 presidential election, despite her 2020 pledge to serve a full second term as mayor. She came tenth out of twelve candidates, with 1.75% of the vote, the lowest result ever for a Socialist candidate in a French presidential election.